


one word: i want

by svnflowerz



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/F, Teen Idol AU, pjofemslashweek2020, rom com AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25873108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svnflowerz/pseuds/svnflowerz
Summary: ASK ATHENAdear athena,i really like this guy but he’s way out of my league and i don’t think he even knows my name. i don’t even care if we go out or anything, i just want to get to know him :( what should i do?thanks!lonely in lovedear lonely,if you’re worried he doesn’t know who you are, try doing something that’ll catch his attention. or, if you really wanna solve your problem go up to him and say hi. people are more willing to get to know you than you might think. just be careful not to say anything dumb.athenapiper didn’t know why she said yes to this, but now she was kind of stuck with it. “this” being showing pop star actress thalia grace around school for two weeks.-or: a teen idol by meg cabot au
Relationships: Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Jason Grace/Leo Valdez, Piper McLean/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Thalia Grace/Drew Tanaka
Comments: 3
Kudos: 33





	one word: i want

**Author's Note:**

> this is a teen idol by meg cabot au and no i am NOT taking constructive critiscm. if u rnt familiar w teen idol the concept is that the mc is the advice columnist for the school paper - who the school body kinda treats like the unofficial physcologist. she gets asked to help this move star find his way around school when he decides to go undercover at her school to reseach a role. everyones in love w him except for the mc who is denying the fact that shes into the eic of the paper bc he already has a gf (even tho he only started dating his gf bc he thought the mc didnt date - which was bc shes been hung up on him since the 5th grade UGH the drama).  
> i changed a lot lol bc the original is early 2000s indiana and um. yea no thx lol. but anyway enjoy <3

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_i really like this guy but he’s way out of my league and i don’t think he even knows my name. i don’t even care if we go out or anything, i just want to get to know him :( what should i do?_ _  
_ _thanks!_

_lonely in love_

_dear lonely,_

_if you’re worried he doesn’t know who you are, try doing something that’ll catch his attention. or, if you really wanna solve your problem go up to him and say hi. people are more willing to get to know you than you might think. just be careful not to say anything dumb._

_athena_

piper didn’t know why she said yes to this, but now she was kind of stuck with it. “this” being showing pop star actress thalia grace around school for two weeks.

piper said yes to most things people asked her to do. she said yes to being ask athena for the school paper, she said yes to joining the mathletes with annabeth and now she’d said yes to babysitting an actress. thalia grace had been a child star since she was little, following in her mom’s footsteps. but that meant she’d never been to real school. piper had been called into a meeting last week about it, thalia grace (or thalia grace’s agent/mom beryl grace) had decided to attend high school to help prepare for her new role on some teen drama. 

the reason she said yes is probably why they ask her. piper was good at keeping secrets (famous dad nobody knows about, much?) and she was even better at being forced to keep the peace. people loved to ask piper things and they hated to hear her advice. piper had gotten used to telling people what they wanted to hear. being thalia grace's tour guide was just the newest on the list.

considering most teen drama writers have never been to high school, piper didn’t think it was very necessary. but to be fair, piper wasn’t an actress. when she’d mentioned it to her dad, he’d said it sounded pretty cool. piper was pretty sure her dad was considered an authority on “cool” to some girls her age. piper was also pretty sure none of those girls have seen her dad wipe out on a surfboard. (or maybe they had? some fans were creepy).

which meant monday morning piper was waiting in the office for thalia grace to show up, piper was early because lupa had told her too and piper was not about to mess with the principal. there was a rumour going around that gwen graduated early last year because she was scared principal lupa was going to eat her. piper checked her phone. 8:10. thalia was five minutes late, piper would’ve thought thalia would be on time because her dad was always obsessing over being early and piper had always assumed it was an actor thing. though, to be fair to thalia, thalia’s whole image was very black ripped jeans and self pierced ears. piper’s best friend annabeth was a little obsessed with her, but it wasn’t really piper’s thing. 

“hey,” piper looked up. there was thalia grace. or, as she would be going as for the next two weeks, tessa green. someone had striped the blue streaks from her hair, the pixie cut was held back by a pink headband and instead of her signature leather jacket annabeth couldn’t shut up about, thalia was wearing a white sundress. piper blinked. she’d known that thalia was going to be undercover as a regular student so she wouldn’t be mobbed by fans or whatever....but piper hadn’t expected this. 

“hi,” piper said. “nice outfit.”

thalia rolled her eyes, “my mom’s always wanted a chance to change my look, and she went a little overboard.” 

“cool, well we should be getting to class. we have latin with mr. brunner,” piper told her. piper picked up her bag and pocketed her phone and started walking to class. she looked back to check that thalia was following her. thalia was following, but she was starting to droop. piper had a redbull in her bag for emergencies she’d offer her if thalia started to snore. 

most of the class was already there when piper arrived with thalia. she showed thalia the empty seat behind her and turned back to the front. mr. brunner was already in class, but he wasn’t really…. _there_ there. last week octavian augur had decided to steal mr. brunner’s horse plushie that he likes to decorate in different historical armour for the senior prank. mr brunner’s been a little...weepy ever since. piper had told octavian and his cronies that it was dumb, but they’d told her it was chill and piper had let it go but...mr. brunner _really_ wasn’t taking it well. 

thalia nudged her with a pencil. “what?” piper asked, not bothering to turn around. 

“one, are we actually supposed to start learning at eight thirty? that’s disgusting. and two, why is that guy so sad?”

piper sighed, “yes we start school at eight thirty, but we finish at three so it’s fine.” 

“ _three?”_

“yeah, and mr. brunner...well the guys in the back row stole his doll last week and he doesn’t know where it is.” piper bit at her lip as she watched mr. brunner stare at his papers. she was a little worried he was going to use them as tissues, and they looked like the last essays they’d handed in. she’d spent six hours on that.

“uh,” thalia said. “that’s fucked up.”

“it’s high school,” piper told her, starting to feel a little guilty. mr brunner bailed her out of any more of thalia’s comments as he finally called class to order, still sniffling. 

thalia made it through first and second period, but when piper was leading her to third period she started wavering a bit so piper slide her her unlabelled thermos of energy drink. thalia drank it way too quickly, but piper didn’t judge. 

as they walked through the hallways piper’s classmates whispered to each other. at one point, piper was pretty sure she saw one girl squeal something about how much thalia looked like thalia grace. yikes. piper pulled thalia quickly past that.

at lunch, thalia found the coffee machine and met piper at piper’s lunch table with a tray of coffees. piper stole on when thalia was turned around as payment for the day and turned back to her friends. she sat with annabeth and her friends from the paper. drew and grover were both columnists, jason was an editor, percy and rachel did the photography and the comics and reyna was the editor in chief. thalia seemed a little overwhelmed by all the kids, but piper let her be. if she could sing in front of giant crowds she could handle the caf. 

annabeth was eyeing thalia, “who are you?” piper sighed. annabeth was kinda the worst at first impressions. besides, annabeth also had a massive crush on thalia grace and piper wouldn’t be surprised if annabeth saw past thalia’s pink-do. 

thalia smirked from behind her second cup of coffee, “tessa green. transfer student.”

annabeth eyed her a little longer, but thalia had moved on. annabeth looked slightly miffed at that, but percy distracted her. percy’s crush on annabeth was even bigger than annabeth’s crush on thalia. 

thalia elbowed piper. “hey,” thalia whispered to her. “who’s the kid in the corner with the matches?”

piper looked over to where thalia was pointing. oh. leo valdez. leo was...kind of a loser. he was also the exact kind of loser that piper wanted to be friends with, but he was in robotics and not mathletes and piper doubted he’d ever join the paper considering mr d had threatened him last year. he was typically making something that would set the school on fire. going straight to matches was new though. piper relayed this to thalia.

“okay, but why isn’t he sitting with anyone?” thalia asked. 

“uh,” piper said. “because he has no friends?”

thalia blinked at her, “why aren’t you his friend then?”

“because this is high school and everyone thinks he’s a loser?” piper said. 

“not everyone thinks he’s a loser,” jason piped up. thalia turned to look at jason, and her face started to look a little sick. piper could relate, jason sometimes looked a little too perfect with his whole american boy shtick. but piper could also remember the time he almost ate a battery when they were freshmen, so it wasn’t that bad. 

drew detached herself from where she'd been lounged across reyna (piper was starting to get especially tired of this, they’d been dating for a year and piper saw way more tongue than she ever wanted too from her half sister) to stare at jason, “yes, jason. everyone thinks he’s a loser.” 

“i don’t think he’s a loser!” jason repeated. jason always stuck up for the little guy, piper liked the sentiment but piper thought it was a little unrealistic to live like that all of the time. 

thalia seemed to like the vibe though, “yeah. he can’t be the worst.”

drew turned to thalia with a raised eyebrow as she stuck the straw of her ice cap in her mouth. then drew stopped short. “oh,” drew said. “who are you?”

“tessa green,” thalia said, eyeing drew right back. piper wondered if thalia had somehow managed to miss that drew and reyna had just been all over each other. the two of them were making really weird eye contact so piper turned to face reyna. reyna was reading something on her phone. reyna was almost always reading something on her phone, and piper had made it her mission since reyna transferred to their school at the end of last year to figure out what it was. 

annabeth thought piper liked reyna. piper had told annabeth multiple times to shove it. piper just. well, reyna already had a girlfriend so it didn’t matter. piper had known reyna since the fifth grade when they were on the track team together. they’d both done long jump. reyna had been much better and won metals and piper had shared the fancy snacks her dad’s shopper bought when they went to meets. then, at the end of fifth grade reyna had moved away to live with her sister. but she’d been at the paper’s retreat over the summer and had snatched the editor in chief position with her natural leadership and her essays on drive and growing up closeted. the position should’ve been drew’s since drew was the only senior on staff and reyna was a junior like piper, but drew had been at a much fancier journalism camp while reyna was impressing mr d. 

then drew had come back for school and she and reyna had gotten together while piper had been stuck on the memory of reyna laughing as she helped piper get out the smores stuck in her hair at the retreat. 

piper was still into reyna, but she wasn’t going to steal her half sister’s girlfriend. so instead, she very platonically hung out with reyna and tried to look over her shoulder when reyna was on her phone. she really wanted to know what reyna was reading. her current guess was the art of war, but she wasn’t sure. 

there was only one almost case of a small fire during lunch, and leo got his matches confiscated by a lunch lady right after. piper watched him as he left. octavian augur might’ve been the best the seniors had to offer this year (mostly because percy and annabeth were to busy mooning at each other while the other wasn’t looking to bother) but piper knew leo was going to come up with something actually funny next year. 

the rest of the day passed in a blur. thalia pestered her when she didn’t understand something - which was a lot - and thalia creepily watched jason during algebra. 

thalia complained a bit about going to the paper meeting after school, but then she and drew got into a weirdly charged argument about a celebrities right for privacy. thalia argued paparazzis were like mosquitos and drew argued that celebrities chose to live in the public eye. piper wanted to back thalia up, but she’d managed to keep the fact that her dad was a movie star almost completely on the down low and she was a big fan of not hearing people ask her about how hot he was. drew knew and was mostly just playing up devils advocate to flirt, but that was about it. 

reyna had asked piper after the meeting if she wanted a ride from her, but she told her that percy and annabeth had her covered. reyna used to drive piper and drew home all the time, but drew had been getting really bitchy recently and the drives home were growing more and more awkward. piper thought it was because she was graduating and going off to university in another state and would have to leave reyna behind, but she wasn’t going to get involved in her half sister’s love life. 

percy shot finger guns at her as he raced out of the meeting to pull his car around. annabeth and him weren’t dating yet because neither of them had realized the other liked them back, but he still gave annabeth a ride home everyday and didn’t mind that piper had started to tag along. percy was nice like that. piper really hoped annabeth didn’t find out thalia was thalia and set her thing with percy back a few months. 

thalia turned to piper as they exited the school, “thanks for today. i’ll see you tomorrow.” piper smiled awkwardly back and watched thalia go. thalia walked over to the parking lot and got on a motorcycle. piper blinked. well, it looked like thalia wasn’t going completely prep for her stint in high school.

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_theres this guy and he’s super smart - way smarter than me. i want to talk to him but i’m worried he’s going to think i’m dumb. we share one of our classes and he’s the funniest guy i’ve ever met. funny AND smart. i’m average and boring :/ what can i do to get him to like me?_

_thanks,_

_average and boring_

_dear average,_

_average is better than below average! just kidding. listen to the kind of jokes he makes and see if you can make one back - google has like a gazillion pages on pages of jokes you can use. you can’t make him like you, but jokes and other common interests are a good way to start. if he’s really worth it, he’ll like that you’re making the effort._

_annie_

the next day thalia was full of questions. she’d also ditched the headband and the dress. she hadn’t gone full punk, but she was in jeans and flannel and had equipped herself with a very tall thermos. piper had caught a sniff and she was pretty sure it was just shots of espresso. 

“so,” thalia said as they watched mr. brunner look over his collection of swords and miniature swords (those ones were for the horse). “do you like that leo kid?”

piper started to choke. when she recovered she shook her head. “no,” she said. “uh. i’m gay and i’m pretty sure he is too.”

“oh” thalia said. “nice, same. okay next question, when are you doing something about the horse?”

“i’m not.”

“you will,” thalia smiled at her. it wasn’t even a mean smile. it was just a very annoyingly assured smile. annabeth wore it all the time, so piper was well acquainted with it. “okay final question: what is it that you do on the paper?”

piper turned back around to face mr. brunner, thalia had dropped tissues off on his desk when she’d come in and he was putting them to good use. “i do ad placements,” piper lied. nobody was allowed to know who ask athena was because then nobody would feel comfortable asking anything. and - well piper liked being listened to, even if nobody knew it was her they were talking to. the only people who knew were principal lupa, coach hedge and reyna. 

the rest of the week went mostly the same. thalia bothered her about the horse and why she wasn’t friends with leo and seemed oddly fixated on jason. thalia also wrote an article with drew about privacy that piper’s dad liked a lot. piper guess she should have known thalia was a good writer, she didn’t watch any of thalia’s shows or movies but she did have some of her songs downloaded and thalia was a really good songwriter. it was...actually pretty nice. 

thalia also made fun of octavian whenever she passed him, which was pretty great. piper was starting to look forward to the day octavian tried to start a fight and thalia punched him in the face. piper had told her guidance counsellor coach hedge that, and he’d agreed. coach hedge was pretty sure that thalia could take him, and will piper wasn’t sure how much that really meant she was starting to notice something. 

everyone, besides octavian probably, really liked thalia. mr. brunner had let her hold one of the unsharpened swords (piper had no idea how the sharpened ones were allowed in the classroom), principal lupa had smiled without her scary teeth near thalia, annabeth was starting to get a crush piper really wanted to end, and drew was halfway flirting with her most of the time - which piper was really grossed out by. who flirted with someone else when they were dating _reyna._

reyna was reyna. how was drew not totally in love with her? piper was in love with her and she wasn’t even with her. reyna sang along to the thalia grace songs as she drove in a scratchy alto and made the worst brownies but could be coached into make half decent chocolate chip cookies and was the best writer piper had ever met and piper didn’t think she’d ever forget the way reyna had looked at her with complete and utter trust when she’d told her about moving out of her dads and into her sisters and how she much she loved her sister and loved living with her, even though her sister always beat her when they raced. 

reyna was also like, the only person who didn’t love thalia. they still got along, but piper though it might be the whole _your flirting with my girlfriend and she’s flirting back_ thing that was holding back their friendship.

everyone liked thalia and the paper was going well and mr. brunner wasn’t crying so much - even though octavian augur had left a ransom note threatening to make his doll bite it if mr brunner didn’t pass all of the seniors - and piper had even done half decent at the last mathletes meeting. 

then on saturday the whole “tessa green is the coolest thing ever” train hit a snag. 

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_i got up the nerve to talk to mr. out of my league. i asked him to work on a group project with me and he said yes! but he’s so quiet i’m really struggling to get him to talk to me. the whole point was to get to know each other and he’s still the cutest guy ever but i don’t know how to get him to open up :(_

_thanks,_

_lonely in love_

_dear lonely,_

_congrats on the group project! you’ve taken the first step so the ball should really be in his court, but if you want to try and encourage him to open up try cracking a joke! if you can get him to laugh you can probably get him to talk to you_

_good luck,_

_athena_

the mathletes were doing a car wash on saturday. piper didn’t know why, but annabeth had said something about raising money for the bus to regionals and percy coming up with it and then piper had clued in. well, if her best friend really wanted to see her crush without his shirt, piper could kind of get it. she’d been known to go quiet when she saw reyna flex her biceps. 

most of the paper had been talked into helping out - which thank god. all of the mathletes gave piper dirty looks when she got a question wrong during practice. someone had decided to ask coach hedge to supervise mathlete meetings (piper thought he had gotten suckered in by the athlete part and then felt to guilty to quit), while coach hedge normally ditched them for the track team he’d been able to show up at the car wash and piper wasn’t sure what to expect. a bunch of mean nerds plus coach hedge plus thalia grace plus the paper. 

annabeth had texted piper to show up in a swimsuit and shorts and piper had obeyed, while rolling her eyes at her phone. she was also stuck being the one to bring the speaker, because her dad had bought a top of the line waterproof bluetooth smartspeaker. sometimes, piper wondered what her friends thought her dad did to have all this weird stuff. 

considering that piper was told to wear a swimsuit, she should've known that that meant reyna was also going to be wearing a swimsuit. piper had thought she’d had it bad when she’d seen reyna’s biceps, but she’d been frozen when she saw reyna’s abs as soon as she arrived. annabeth had ripped the speaker from her hands and almost spilt a bucket of soapy water on her before piper snapped out of it. 

there were way more people at the car wash than piper had expected. it was for the mathletes with the assistance of the paper. it looked a bit like coach hedge had made his actual athletes show up and hold signs and pay for car washes, but there were a bunch of regular students piper never would have expected. 

leo had shown up, for example. leo drove a pickup, which piper had found surprising because she’d heard a rumour that leo had gotten his license taken away for illegally tricking out his truck. leo told her that the cops didn’t know, which piper probably should’ve been more concerned about. 

instead, she asked leo to show her what he’d done to his car. reyna and piper washed leo’s car as he showed them how he had a secondary horn for fun that spat out randomized animal sounds. reyna didn’t seem to find it funny, so piper was a little confused as to why she was washing leo’s car when drew seemed to be over at a much nicer car with thalia. 

“so,” leo asked her after he finished showing her the lights he had in the wheels. “are you and thalia a thing?”

piper laughed, “what? me and thalia?”

“yeah, are you?” piper spun around to see reyna awkwardly holding up a sponge. reyna looked a little sad for some reason, maybe worried that thalia was dating piper and flirting with drew or something. 

“uh no, thalia’s not really my type,” piper explained, still confused as to where these rumours where coming from. 

“then who is your type?” reyna asked her, biting her lip. piper’s eyes caught on reyna’s mouth, but leo poked her and she blinked. 

“uh,” piper said. “i like girls that um. girls that are strong, smart. good writers. bad bakers.”

leo started snickering, and piper kinda wanted to hit him. he’d caught on, but luckily reyna seemed not to realize piper was describing her.

piper looked back to where thalia and drew were washing the car, she was starting to think thalia was the reason there were so many people judging by how there were a crowd of ppl near her asking her to do something. “hey,” leo asked reyna. “how are things with you and drew?” piper winced. 

“oh,” reyna said. “we broke up two days ago.”

piper spun around, “wait what?”

reyna looked over at drew and thalia, a strange look on her face. “yeah. drew and i. we ran our time out, i think. we got into a fight on the weekend and it didn’t end well.” reyna shook her head, and brushed her hair out of her face as she turned back to leo’s truck. 

piper reached out and touched reyna’s arm. “hey,” she said softly. “i’m sure whatever drew said, she didn’t mean it.” reyna smiled, but her face was hard to read and piper let her hand fall. 

leo leaned over and whispered to piper as she stepped back, “what are you doing - ask her out!” piper threw her sponge at him. 

and then she heard the worst thing possible. 

it was thalia’s music on the speaker. annabeth’s playlists all had something from thalia - piper felt her stomach drop as she turned back to thalia and drew. the crowd around thalia had started to chant something. 

“sing! sing! sing! sing! sing!” piper’s classmates called. thalia laughed and hopped back onto the hood of the car and smiled at them all. and then she started to sing along to her own song on the radio like a complete fucking idiot. 

annabeth was the first one to clue in. piper knew because she heard the music come to complete stop and when she turned around annabeth had dropped her bucket to the ground. piper looked around the entire parking lot and saw more and more people piece it together. and then they started moving towards thalia. thalia kept singing for a little longer - but then thalia seemed to realize what was going on and she hastily jumped onto the roof of the car she was sitting on as she fumbled for her phone. 

piper had seen this happen before. her dad couldn’t go with her to a lot of places, and when they did hang out in public he always dressed very very carefully to try and put distance between himself and tristan mclean. “okay,” reyna said. piper looked back and saw reyna doing something on her phone. “i just called my sister so hylla’s gonna come by with some friends and try and talk some sense into all of those weirdos.” reyna’s sister did something with security, so piper nodded and turned back to the crowds. 

there were teachers shoving screenplays at thalia and boys singing love songs and girls asking her to autograph their swimsuits. instead of trying to get her to sing, they were just saying thalia over and over again. 

after a few minutes of it, reyna’s sister showed up in uniform with friends, and more importantly - a limo showed up for thalia. piper let out a breath of relief-

and then thalia called her name. “piper!” thalia said, halfway into her limo. “piper get over here!”

piper blinked at her, but leo and reyna shoved at her and she squeezed through the crowds as reyna’s sister helped her through the door. piper watched her friends faces as she drover away. there was no music playing in the limo. 

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_the really smart and funny guy asked me to work on a group project with him! except i keep freezing up when i talk to him!! i looked up jokes like you said, but i don’t know how to say them. he must think im such an airhead :’(_

_please help,_

_average and boring_

_dear average,_

_you said he’s funny right? next time he cracks a joke, say one back. also - maybe check out the letters from lonely in love? this is starting to sound weirdly familiar._

_athena_

piper sat on the carpet with her back to the couch in thalia’s apartment. thalia sat down next to her and handed her a glass of water. for a moment they just sat next to each other, staring at the black screen of the television. 

“i’m sorry about back there,” piper said. “though, you probably shouldn’t have started singing.”

thalia let out a laugh, “yeah. yeah you’re right. but what are you sorry about?”

“for my friends being freaks?” piper offered. 

“it’s fine,” thalia said. “happens all the time.”

piper knew that. it’s why everyone thought she and her dad were homebodies. 

“hey,” thalia said, turning to face piper. “you’re different. you’re not as awful as all of those kids in your classes. i’ve never been to high school, but i’m kinda thankful for that now.” 

piper frowned at thalia, “they’re not all bad.”

thalia blinked at her, “octavian augur is threatening to murder your latin teachers doll. and no ones saying anything. piper - you could say something.”

piper turned away from thalia and back to the black television screen. she wasn’t surprised by what thalia was saying, she’d been saying it all along. thalia wanted high school to have good fucking people. and she wanted piper to be one of them. 

and. well, piper kind of wanted to be one of them too. 

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_i made a joke and he made a joke back! we’ve started actually talking and it’s so so so good, but i don’t know what to do now! i just wanted to get to know him at first, but now that i know him i want to ask him out. how do i let him know i’m interested - or how do i know he likes me back? he probably has lots of guys lining up to take him out_

_lonely in love_

_dear lonely,_

_go read average and boring’s letters. if you two aren’t writing ot me about each other i’m going to be very concerned about the state of unrequited crushes at this school. you both like each other. just ask him to go to the dance with you._

_athena_

piper went home with a mission in mind. she had her dad’s limo pick her up, just to mess with thalia. thalia had sent her off a little in awe and with an autograph request piper had promised ot fulfill with a laugh. piper wasn’t going to let anyone know who ask athena was anytime soon, but she figured she could let at least one secret go. 

her dad took it all in stride, promising her he’d even deliver thalia her autograph in person. her dad was the easy part. annabeth had been blowing up her phone and when she finally answered it was like opening the flood gates. 

“how do you think i should ask thalia grace to the dance?” annabeth asked. piper stared at her phone. 

“why are you asking thalia grace to the dance?”

“piper! i’ve liked thalia grace forever, of course i’m going to ask her to the dance. wait - do you think drew beat me to it? i saw drew slip thalia her number before thalia got into the limo omigod piper i-”

piper cut her off, “annabeth you liked thalia grace’s music. you’ve been eating at the same lunch table as tessa green for a week and i didn’t think you liked her very much.”

“i. well. i just haven’t gotten the chance to get to know her. what, are you jealous that you don’t have a date to the dance or something?”

piper blinked at that. well, that was a take. she pinched herself so she would know she wasn’t hallucinating. “i’m not jealous. i already have a date. besides, you know who you actually know - and it’s not thalia. you know percy.”

“what does percy have to do with anything?”

“annabeth, percy’s going to ask you to the dance on monday. or at least he was going to. if you were ranting to him about thalia he probably doesn’t think you’re interested.”

annabeth was silent for a few moments. and then she said, hesitantly, “percy likes me?”

“yeah,” piper confirmed, way too tired for this conversation. then she hung up the phone because she wasn’t dealing with that for any longer. 

after that, she called reyna. 

reyna pulled up to the front of her house with her jaw hanging open. piper waved goodbye to her dad, who was laughing for some reason, and slipped into the passenger seat. 

“your dad is tristan mclean,” reyna said, looking her right in the eye. “can you please interview him after his newest movie comes out. that would be the funniest issue we’ll ever print. i’ll get rachel and percy to put together a comic strip on it.” 

piper blinked, and then she started to smile. “yeah sure,” piper said. “now can you drive me to octavian’s place?”

reyna dropped her off outside of octavian’s house and piper walked up to the door and rang the bell. after a few seconds the person piper was hoping for answered the door. will solace looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. he was in the year below piper and octavian’s younger step brother. he also hated octavian’s guts. 

“hey,” piper said with a winning smile.

“hey,” will said. “uh, are you here for the doll? lou ellen’s in your math class and he said the new girls been bugging you about rescuing it all week.”

“uh,” piper said. will laughed and walked into the house. piper waited on the steps awkwardly, not quite sure what was going on. will came back a few seconds later with mr. brunner’s horse in one hand. in the other hand was a missing pet poster. 

“hey i made this up with some friends, we thought it was funny,” will told her as he handed over the doll and the poster. “octavian thinks he lost the doll and has been freaking out for the past few days. can you like, record his reaction when he sees it?”

piper nodded slowly and thanked will. when she got back in the car she stared at the objects in her hand. reyna read over the poster. “huh,” reyna said. “maybe we can run an article about - wait his name is chiron? uh chiron’s return.”

“that was so much easier than i thought it would be,” piper said. reyna laughed at her and pulled away. 

_PIPER MCLEAN - DAUGHTER OF TRISTAIN MCLEAN - DATING THALIA GRACE?_

_EXES CHILDREN TURNED LOVEBIRDS_

_HIDING CELEBRITIES FIND LOVE!_

unfortunately, the school paper didn’t get to be the one to break the news on who piper’s dad was. tabloids seemed to have caught on to thalia ushering her into her limo, there was even a picture of it swirling around the internet. some reporters had tried to call them, but her dad had shielded her from most of it. she’d given two quotes that he had approved. the first was, “you’re weirdly interested in a sixteen year olds love life” and the second had been, “yes i’m a lesbian. no i’m not dating thalia. not all teenage lesbians like thalia grace.”

pretty much all of her friends had sent her the clips and screenshots of it. leo had somehow gotten her number and texted her alternatives that involved a lot more swear words he wanted her to use next time. drew had texted saying that she was relieved because siblings shouldn’t share girlfriends. and reyna had called her laughing and they had stayed on the link for a few hours. 

it was...pretty great. piper had even gotten out of the mathletes competition which she really hadn’t wanted to go and fail at because they didn’t want all of the extra attention she would bring. she’d been supposed to cover the event for the paper, but percy had happily taken her spot on the bus. 

he’d asked annabeth to the dance while singing one of thalia’s songs. it was a song about second choices being just as good and annabeth had kissed him in front of the whole school and then told him very firmly that he wasn’t her second choice. 

drew had been a little annoying - she’d texted piper something hearing thalia already had a date for the dance and how she was wondering if reyna would go with her. piper had told her she couldn’t go crawling back to reyna now. and then she told her that she should show up to the dance anyways, because that date wasn’t as sure a thing as drew might be thinking.

drew had left her on read. but the next day she’d been a lot more bearable. piper thought she might be getting the hang of the whole getting people to listen to her for once thing. 

and leo was sitting with them at lunch. piper was pretty sure it had been jason who’d invited him - jason was getting a lot of confessions this week judging by the way he and leo were smiling at each other. leo let piper play with his robot and it didn’t catch on fire, but it did eat grover’s empty soda can.

the day before the dance piper made a returned version of the wanted poster, struggled to make clothes for the horse with reyna (apparently hylla and her had done some sewing classes at a community centre?) and placed chiron the horse on mr. brunner’s desk.

thalia wasn’t in the class with piper to see it all go down, but piper smiled and made direct eye contact with octavian the entire time as she was setting up chiron. he stared at her from his seat and didn’t dare to move a muscle. will’s friend lou ellen recorded it all the way including mr. brunner hugging the horse and challenging students to a duel with his swords. piper took him up on it, and laughed when he beat her. 

“you know,” he said as he took back the sword she’d used. “i can do more in this wheelchair than you might think. like failing you!” mr. brunner had then pointed the sword at octavian and told him to march to the principal’s office. lou ellen’s video was on everyone's snapchat that night.

at lunch leo was smiling at everyone. “guess who’s hosting a dance protest party?”

“me,” jason said. leo turned and threw a hand on his chest and gasped dramatically. jason just smiled at him. “well it’s true! your mom said no so we’re hosting it at my place since i have a massive backyard.”

leo waved his hand at jason and turned back to the rest of the lunch table, “anyways you’re all coming.”

drew blinked at him, “i’m going to the dance. and so is annabeth and percy.”

leo sighed at her, “i know that drew. you are obviously gonna get it at the dance with thalia grace, but then thalia is going to drive you and annabeth and percy back to jason’s once you all get bored of the rest of our school. you know, all the people you hate?”

“uh,” percy said. “this is all news to me.”

“well,” said jason. “dances suck and i’m ordering cake pops and having a bonfire and thalia’s apparently my missing sister who happened to find me and she wanted to host a party with us so we’re having a party and you’re all coming.”

_ASK ATHENA_

_dear athena,_

_wow. thanks? jason and i don’t really care about anonymity anymore - we’re too busy going out. thanks for letting us know we we were both being dumb. i was lonely in love and he thought he was average and boring but now we’re the cutest couple in school! ask athena verified dating service everyone!_

_leo and jason_

_dear leo and jason,_

_congrats! to the rest of the school, this is not a dating service and you don’t understand how happy i am that i don’t have these too pining in the mailbox anymore._

_athena_

thalia picked her up for the dance in her motorcycle. thalia wanted to get more use out of it and piper liked the idea of wearing a fancy dress on a bike. her dad was not having so much fun with it all, but the school wasn’t far away so he just watched them leave anxiously after getting pictures. 

when piper had been over at thalia’s place on saturday thalia had asked her to the dance. thalia had never been to a school dance before, and she wanted to get as much of the high school experience in a week and a bit as she could. that’s why they were also having an anti dance right after. it was more punk, which thalia liked, and it was at her brothers, which meant thalia got to spend time with the brother she hadn’t seen in years do to really shitty custody agreements. 

thalia had asked her as friends, and piper had said yes because thalia was her friend now - somehow - and she didn’t mind doing her a favour. especially if it meant she could see the look on drew’s face. besides, piper had never actually gone to one of these dances before because she’d always been busy at the anti dances with her friends who didn’t get dates until this year. 

piper’s classmates were all taking pictures as they got off the bike in front of the school, but piper ignored them. she let thalia throw an arm around her shoulders and they laughed at stupid dresses as they walked into the school. it took thalia about three minutes to ditch her for drew - which was apparently becoming a very real thing and was also apparently completely fine with reyna. piper didn’t really know what was going on there and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. 

instead, she danced with percy and annabeth and drank gross punch and defaced a couple decorations with grover - who insisted on recycling the broken decorations after - and then they got on the limo and went to jasons. 

reyna was sitting by the fire pit on her phone when they got there. piper took a deep breathe, grabbed two cake pops, and sat next to reyna. 

“hi,” piper said. “cake pop?”

reyna looked up from her phone and giggled, taking one, “thanks. how was the dance?”

piper shrugged, “it sucked. you weren’t there.”

reyna’s mouth dropped open. “oh.”

“yeah,” piper said, she was a little nervous but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “so uh. i’ve liked you for a while, haha. and um. do you want to go out?”

reyna’s face broke out into a grin. piper had always known that reyna looked beautiful in the firelight, but it was still stunning, “yeah i wanna go out. i’ve wanted to ask you out since we were kids, but i didn’t think you liked me.”

piper stared at her, “i’ve been trying to figure out what you’ve been reading on your phone all year because i wanted an excuse to be next to you when i looked over your shoulder. i’ve liked you too since we were kids.”

reyna started laughing and piper joined in. 

“it’s romances, by the way.”  
  
“what?”

“i’m always reading trashy romances,” reyna told her. piper stared at her and then started laughing harder, bending over not being able to stop. reyna put her hand on piper’s back and piper did her best to take deep breaths as she calmed down. 

as she sat back up they smiled at each other and reyna leaned in and kissed piper’s cheek and they watched the fire. grover and percy were daring each other dumb shit as annabeth watched and one upped them, and thalia and drew were making out and leo and jason were stealing bites from each others cake pops. 

piper rested her head on reyna’s shoulders and felt the warmth of the fire on her face. 

**Author's Note:**

> ty for reading!  
> im zoenightshadez on tumblr if u wanna talk n i have a pjo girls discord server


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